If she drives to a third consecutive title in Pyeongchang, she will become the first back-to-back-to-back Olympic champion in her sport

She’s not just a driver, she’s driven.

Relentless. Intense. Pick an edgy adjective and Kaillie Humphries embodies it. She is singularly focused on being the best bobsled driver in the world. Or rather, continuing to be the best. It’s her job, her mission, her passion.

The 32-year-old from Calgary is the two-time defending Olympic champion in women’s bobsleigh. If she drives to a third consecutive title in Pyeongchang — and some might say when — she will become the first back-to-back-to-back Olympic champion in her sport in any of the three disciplines.

But that’s not the point.

“Doing something nobody else has done isn’t what motivates me. What motivates me is challenging myself and my teammates to be the very best we can be,” Humphries said in a September interview. “I truly believe that is standing on top of the podium at the Olympic Games. If at any point that changes, then I know I’m done.”

Bobsleigh athlete Kaillie Humphries poses for a photo after the naming of the Olympic team in Calgary on Jan. 24, 2018.

Germany’s Andre Lange, East Germany’s Meinhard Nehmer and American William Fiske won two straight golds in four-man action, while Switzerland’s Gustav Weder and Donat Acklin and Germany’s Kevin Kuske and Lange won back-to-back titles in two-man sleds.

Three-peating in an Olympic event is not rare, per se, though only three female winter-sport athletes have turned the trick: Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie (1928, ’32 and ’36), German speed skater Claudia Pechstein in the 5,000 metres (1994, ’98 and 2002) and American speed skater Bonnie Blair in the 500 metres (1988, ’92 and ’94). It happens far more often at the Summer Olympics and with male competitors.

“I know other women have done it. I know it’s not impossible,” Humphries said. “Has it been done within this sport? No. But nobody is me. Nobody knows me better than I do. So I am going to push myself as hard as I possibly can until the point that it becomes no longer fun. I want to see how high that can go. It’s not about the results as much as it is that self-satisfaction, knowing I did everything I possibly could to be the very best.

“It’s a big challenge, but I work well under pressure and I work well when I have something to sacrifice and challenge myself for. I am more fearful of becoming complacent than I am of failing. I am putting myself out there as hard as I possibly can and I am doing everything I know how to push myself and my teammates to get to that next level.”

Humphries and Phylicia George at the Bob World Cup on Jan. 20, 2018 (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Humphries was hungrier than usual this year, given that she wasn’t satisfied with her 2016-17 season, one that left her second to Jamie Gruebel Poser of the United States in World Cup points. Humphries won races in Whistler and Altenberg, silver in St. Moritz and Igls, bronze in Lake Placid, but finished off the podium in Winterberg, Konigsee and, most troubling, Pyeongchang, where she was fifth.

“I wasn’t satisfied completely with last year. I had some good races that I was really happy with but I also made a couple mistakes and those mistakes tend to eat at me a lot.”

She erased those memories with another World Cup overall title, paired first with brakeman Melissa Lotholz early in the season, and then with former Olympic hurdler Phylicia George.

“We’ve got awesome brakemen. Every girl on this team is extremely hungry to be able to race and work toward winning an Olympic medal. That’s the most important thing,” Humphries said.

“Whoever ends up in my sled come the Olympics, that’s not my choice. That’s up to Bobsleigh Canada. The fastest brakemen will be with the fastest pilots. At the end of the day we want to win. That’s the goal. It’s not about personalities. It’s not about who likes who the best. It literally comes down to performance.”

Hers has been impeccable. Paired first with Lotholz, she burst from the gate with a win in Lake Placid and another in Whistler to take the overall points lead after three World Cup stops. In early January in Altenberg, Germany, Humphries and George grabbed gold. Humphries was on a mission.

“There are outliers in this sport, in the skill game, and she is one of them,” Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton high performance director Chris Le Bihan said. “There have been a few throughout the decades. Just because you have experience driving doesn’t mean you’re going to be the best. You can have 10 years experience as a pilot, that doesn’t always correlate with you being better than somebody who has less experience.

“Kaillie is an outlier in that respect. What makes outliers outliers? Each individual is different, that’s why they’re called outliers. You can’t put them in a box. So you try and learn from them, figure out exactly what makes them tick and see if you can maybe take some of that and replicate with other pilots.”

Her success and experience gives her standing on the team, which is stronger for her presence. She’s a leader by example on the podium, in the weight room and the ice house. Even so, her intensity doesn’t jibe with everybody.

“But if you’re a pilot in this sport, male or female, and there is someone like Kaillie in your program, it’s probably a good idea to see how she executes, how she plans,” said Le Bihan. “It doesn’t mean it’s always going to work for everyone, but it gives you a bit of a blueprint. If that person is this good at this sport, I’m going to see what she’s doing. You might take some of it, you might take none of it, you might take all of it. It depends. Everyone approaches things differently.”

Humphries at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Germany on Jan. 19, 2018 (GETTY IMAGES)

Humphries approaches everything with an eye on getting better. She filters out distractions. Asked on a Tuesday in early December to comment on the IOC decision regarding Russian participation in Korea, she declined, saying she was focused on her race. Several days later. That’s textbook Humphries.

“What does she want? She wants to win,” Canadian brakeman Alex Kopacz said. “She is capable of doing exactly what she needs to do to put her in the best position to do that. And even in the event something goes wrong or something is less than optimal, maybe a start, or maybe she gets the wrong material selected for the race, it all comes down to her focusing anyway and performing and doing what she needs to win.

“She is a very tenacious woman and I think that’s where all this intensity comes from, just such a singular purpose. There is no distracting her.”

Driver Justin Kripps puts it more succinctly.

“She’s a pro. She’s ice cold. She doesn’t get rattled. She’s a great driver. She’s consistent. She always executes. It doesn’t surprise me when she has success,” he said.

Humphries puts her life into the pursuit of that success. A third Olympic gold would be great, historic in fact, but it wouldn’t be the end.

“I don’t feel I’m done. I don’t want this to be my last (Olympics),” she said. “I don’t know what it looks like after the Games. But I do know I don’t want this to be my last Olympics. I’m still having fun competing. I’m still competitive and I know there is more that I can give to this sport.”

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